Decreasing passengers or increasing seats at Melbourne Airport?

[Kurt A]

Decreasing passengers or increasing seats at Melbourne Airport?
March 18


Last financial year witnessed a distinct lack of growth in passengers from Melbourne Airport, as compared to every other Australian capital city.

The ACCC report recorded a mere 5% increase in numbers at Melbourne Airport, as opposed to Darwin Airport’s 15% progress.

Darwin’s accomplishment is likely to be a result of the new Tiger Airways flights to Singapore, Business Day reported.

Despite Melbourne’s lack of passenger growth, its quality of service improvements shifted its ranking from fourth to tying for third with Perth Airport.

Brisbane Airport has been ranked best service quality in Australia for five years running, and this year Adelaide improved to share first place with Brisbane.

The ACCC’s 2006-07 Airport Monitoring Report is intended to encourage Australian airports to deliver a high level of service.

However, Graeme Samuel, ACCC Chairman, felt the need to identify Darwin and Canberra airports, who received service rankings of “satisfactory” and “below satisfactory” respectively.

Samuel noted that major airports have profited from strong growth and increasing prices, but recognised that “The profit performance of the airports does not appear to be related to the quality of service they provide.”

The spokesman for Melbourne Airport, Geoffrey Conaghan, dismissed the ACCC report due to its reliance upon voluntary information and data from airports.

The fact that airports were able to decide which information to disclose rendered the report unable to “compare apples with applies,” according to Conaghan.

“The lack of growth is not an indication of a lack of demand for Melbourne.”

He continued, focussing on the forthcoming new schedule, which aims for an 11% increase in international seats. This ought to rectify any Melbourne issues, as Conaghan claimed, “In fact, demand is above supply – we need more seats.”

- News Article